Elena Dardar

Professional Development 2015/16

Accomplish

Curriculum Coordinating Project:

Susannah, Julia and I are putting in common a selection of content, resources and activities, organizing, sequencing and mapping our teacher-created curriculum from Pre-Primary to 6 th grade for consistency and continuity of instruction. We are in our second year of working in collaboration at inventorying what is taught and how it is taught and assessed. We are working at bringing all required elements together to create and articulate scope and sequence that allows learners to advance to the highest possible levels of proficiency given our type of program (daily instruction, early learning etc).

This document needs to be written in a format that is easily understood and accessible to teachers (current and future) to allow sustainability. Themes, essential questions, topics increasingly more complex provide the structure necessary to create an articulated curriculum. We are creating a plan showing when learners will encounter certain themes and topics, identifying potential essential questions that will anchor the thematic units. The themes reoccur throughout the years and we determine how to recycle topics in more complex ways, allowing learners to build on what has been previously learned.

At this point of time, we are still listing what is taught and how. We are just at the premises of the second phase (targeting essential questions), and still far from the third phase (making sure that topics are recycled in more complex ways to reach the highest level of proficiency). I will be continuing my effort toward the realization of this project and also share our views with the rest of the French department in order to link our decisions, concentrate on what is deemed important, add and change what needs to be, and make sure that there are no gaps in our program

This map will also include SAIS goals such as: •Differentiation, Tiered Lesson Plans: we will make sure that our lessons can be differentiated depending on the foreign language levels that we have in our classes (SAIS goals # 1.10, 1.20) •OPI and Digital Oral Library and: a special attention will be given to communicative skills, oral comprehension, essential questions and grammar knowledge for stronger continuous growth (SAIS goals # 2.10, 4.30) •21 st Century Skills : we need to make sure that we provide higher level thinking activities and use different entries to improve the learning process, students’ motivation and long term retention and link the activities and assessments to the real world through the meaningful use of technology and multiply cross-divisional projects between EEC and upper school students (SAIS goals # 1.30, 2.10)

Acquire Knowledge

IALLT Teachers’ Conference

Presenting at ACTFL national conference in 2014 was the most rewarding experience of my entire life. It made me realize how important it is to step outside of our comfort zone, how important it is to represent our school outside of our own state and how beneficial it is to our own teaching to study a specific subject in great depth. To acquire knowledge in order to achieve new goals, participating (and certainly presenting) at teachers’ conferences is in my opinion, the most efficient tool. Presenting at ACTFL was not the first time I was sharing my findings with other professionals. I presented at the state level (Greenville, South Carolina), the out of state level (New York State), and then at the national level. My goal is now to present at an international conference.

In 2015, in order to prepare myself to present in 2016, I would like to attend the VI conference of the International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT) at Harvard University (Aug 11-15).

IALLT is a professional organization whose members provide leadership in the development, evaluation and management of instructional technology for the teaching of language. Since it has become essential to teaching, I have been keeping our department constantly aware of the most updated instructional technology to improve students’ motivation and overall proficiency. In order to promote the highest level of thinking and retention, each tool I select is deeply and thoroughly tested depending on our needs but this selection will remain powerful only through constant update (SAIS Goal 4: “integrate digital media and 21st century tools, promote critical thinking and creativity”)

Web Based Professional Learning

Ashley Hall Parents have shown a tremendous interest in what teachers post in our Learning Commons. They are always eager to receive new updates (songs, web sites etc) but above all, their child’s one on one OPI assessment videos (performed 3 times a year). Many shared their interest in the French language and feel sorry for their own lack of knowledge. I would like to offer the possibility to parents to practice learning French at home with their child. In order to further my knowledge and accomplish this, I would like to take the following class: Online Facilitator Training with Teacher Line SouthEast who offers classes through their affiliation with different colleges across the country. ( http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/catalog/courses/TECH522/ )

Professional growth is a never ending ongoing process, especially when it is about ever changing and evolving technology. Taking classes to obtain a master’s with Wilkes University just opened the door to “want to know more” for me.

Results

I am very pleased by the way our team has been working at coordinating our curriculum. I have been making sure to define our vision and our mission and to break down the process as much as possible. A deeper focus on curriculum mapping will provide the tools to grasp the challenging times of language teaching using authentic materials, critical thinking, creativity and technology.

Updates

•I obtained a Master in Instructional Media with Wilkes University (end of March 2014). Several observations have been sent to our Administrative team to highlight the benefits of this degree for our program. A shift has been made from rote memorization to critical thinking and creativity to improve retention and prepare our students for a global citizenship.

•I organized Ashley Hall’s first official OPI for the French Department (January 2014) with a random selection of students in 7 th grades to assess where we are and determine what our future goals are in order to map our curriculum efficiently (SAIS Goal # 2: “develop and use the Oral Proficiency Interview”).

•I created an online French Audio Library: voice recordings of the books we are using are now online on our Learning Commons so the parents can read the books with their child at home. The goal is to best reinforce knowledge and link school to home. (SAIS Goal # 4.30) •I concentrated on advertising our French program outside of campus though the Learning Commons and created a teacher/parents group to share the latest research in language acquisition, opening a forum for discussions. The goal is to improve students’ retention by involving the parents in their child’s education in a meaningful way. •I presented at the ACTFL conference ( November 2014). “Assess Students Using Technology”. I discussed and shared my and others’ findings with our French Language department. (SAIS Goal # 4: “integrate digital media and 21st century tools”)